Ruhi Singh is on her way to Bombay to participate in an intense beauty boot camp as a contestant in the Miss India pageant, a surefire launching pad to fame in a country of 1.2 billion people.
Meanwhile, just a few hours away, Prachi Trivedi works at a very different kind of camp – one run by a militant Hindu nationalist group, where young girls are trained to combat western influences.
Moving between the two camps, this lively and provocative documentary paints a portrait of a nation in transformation. A study in contrasts on the one hand, the film also reveals disturbing similarities in the obstacles that each woman faces as she tries to have an impact on her society.
The World Before Her won Best Canadian Feature at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival.
"Think you know why one woman might choose to be a beauty queen while another chooses to learn to fight? This documentary examines being a woman in India, and the hard choices that they make" —Alison
Nisha Pahuja
Nisha Pahuja
Cornelia Principe, Nisha Pahuja, Ed Barreveld
Documentary
English, Other
English
Nisha Pahuja lives in Ontario.